After 15 Years Of Whipping The Llama’s Ass, Winamp Shuts Down

[boohbah]

if you just want a basic player that is good with playlists then try xion.

Xion Audio Player

 

[jimbo45]

Hi all old timers like me

Dec 20 -- "The Day Music died " (skip the initial advertisement) nice RIP I think for Winamp -- you will be missed.

Don McLean- American Pie (with Lyrics) - YouTube

@boohbah - some of us actually don't use playlist but prefer working in Folders. Winamp does this perfectly.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[TVeblen]

if you just want a basic player that is good with playlists then try xion.

Xion Audio Player

Thanks boohbah. I was just thinking - I do one other chore regularly with Winamp: Enter file info (by Track, Title, Artist, Genre, date, producer, and notes) for music I record from the interwebs. I would guess you could do that with all the other players too?

 

[boohbah]

thanks jimbo ,im aware i have used winamp as my primary player for years and use it with folders, in fact i dont use the winamp library, mp3's are set to open with winamp.

xion is a good substitute for someone who does use playlists and in particular will play a list with several hundred tunes on it.

my xion tip was to tvemblem

 

[boohbah]

if you just want a basic player that is good with playlists then try xion.

Xion Audio Player

Thanks boohbah. I was just thinking - I do one other chore regularly with Winamp: Enter file info (by Track, Title, Artist, Genre, date, producer, and notes) for music I record from the interwebs. I would guess you could do that with all the other players too?

not sure, im still keeping winamp as it should still be able to function as it always has, so i will be getting track info etc.
be sure and get the latest version before the 20th Dec.
ive also downloaded the plugins i use and my skin of choice.
they may even let it go open source so others can keep it going but we will have to wait and see.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Could still be life in the old dog yet (or LLama!!).

From a post on the same thread on W8 Forums.W8 Forums.

Microsoft Wants to Buy and Save Winamp ? Report

In any case Winamp will continue to run into the indefinite future - I can't see any new audio codecs appearing -- all the good one's are already here. FLAC, MP3, WAV -- who needs anything else for audio. (Mp4 / mkv used for video - that's another issue though).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...For me say I rip 3 Mozart CD's to a Mozart XXX folder...

Essentially, that is a play list, just a more awkward one with no flexibility. By ripping my CDs to one folder per CD, I treat the each folder as though it's the physical CD only it doesn't take up the room of a CD and it's jewel box and I don't have to physically handle or search for them; my computer does the work for me (that is a point of having a computer, is it not?). I just use the computer like a juke box full of albums and singles.

 

[jimbo45]

...For me say I rip 3 Mozart CD's to a Mozart XXX folder...

Essentially, that is a play list, just a more awkward one with no flexibility. By ripping my CDs to one folder per CD, I treat the each folder as though it's the physical CD only it doesn't take up the room of a CD and it's jewel box and I don't have to physically handle or search for them; my computer does the work for me (that is a point of having a computer, is it not?). I just use the computer like a juke box full of albums and singles.

Hi there
Actually that's what I tend to do also - Each CD is in it's own folder - but I sometimes say have Folder say Mozart symphonies, and then the CD's in sub folders within that.

I don't say I never use playlists --it's just that I like to keep the folders as "CD's" - which I can re-create if ever I need to physically burn them again --unlikely but whoever knows.

I have a a self written MySQL application which if I do want to create a playlist then I just run a few SQL queries and the Query output creates for me a list of files which I then input as a playlist to winamp - just takes a few secs to run the SQL query.

For example "get up to 200 rows where title = Symphon* AND, composer EQ Mozart AND artist EQ LSO" (London Symphony Orchestra). (Symphon* takes allowance of Symphony or Symphonies in the title for example).

Cut and paste the output into winamp --works a treat.

(MySQL free download for home use http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/).

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Whew! That sounds like a lot of work. Being the lazy old bi...er...broad I am, I just let MediaMonkey and my computer do all the work. The free version does pretty much everything I use the paid version for (lifetime license); the only thing I gained from the paid version are better rips (I could have gotten that free if I used a free ripping program) and an easy to use, flexible built in sleep timer (that alone was worth the cost).

 

[Indianatone]

Jimbo, playing by folders is why I use Winamp. I think the first time I used it was in 2000 when I installed it on NT4 at work and then at home (NT4 too) and I switched between Winamp and Musimatch all the time. Once Musicmatch was killed off by Yahoo I registered Winamp for its naming file abilities and faster ripping etc. Been a good friend, use it daily all day playing music and I will still continue to use it after it is no longer supported. The newer players out there don't have all the abilities of what I consider to be useful.
I have my Rock and Pop artists and bands in a Folder A to Z, a Classical Music Folder, a Misc folder which has a ""Best Music Mix"" 17.5 GB in size. Winamp plays this from whichever computer with no issues. I then have a various artists folder which all those types of albums in them. I am not against change but this is a popular player that works just wonderfully for me. Heck if I was made of money I would buy it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...The newer players out there don't have all the abilities of what I consider to be useful...

I'm curious; what are those missing abilities? I'd hate to be missing out on something.

 

[Indianatone]

Play by folder, just navigate to a folder and let Winamp play the whole lot in order or random order. Setting an alloction in the options to load the whole file into ram (makes sense with 16Gb or more)I don't do playlists and as an old cantankerous bar stewert depending on the day I just let it work like it has for years (13+). The interface is clear and uncluttered, I like the grey black and orange city night theme. The program is light weight and fast and honestly never crashes on me.......If I don't fancy a track I can hit the forward button on the taskbar, if the player is in focus the Number lock 6 button. So manly little things it is hard to figure them out without using it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Play by folder, just navigate to a folder and let Winamp play the whole lot in order or random order. Setting an alloction in the options to load the whole file into ram (makes sense with 16Gb or more)I don't do playlists and as an old cantankerous bar stewert depending on the day I just let it work like it has for years (13+). The interface is clear and uncluttered, I like the grey black and orange city night theme. The program is light weight and fast and honestly never crashes on me.......If I don't fancy a track I can hit the forward button on the taskbar, if the player is in focus the Number lock 6 button. So manly little things it is hard to figure them out without using it.

MediaMonkey can do all that and more. It's skinable so one can change the skin to what one wants. This is how I have it set up:



Just about everything can be customized if one doesn't like the defaults. I'm not using half of the columns available.

 

[Indianatone]

Download links for Winamp.
Old Version of Winamp Download - OldApps.com

 

[Indianatone]

Play by folder, just navigate to a folder and let Winamp play the whole lot in order or random order. Setting an alloction in the options to load the whole file into ram (makes sense with 16Gb or more)I don't do playlists and as an old cantankerous bar stewert depending on the day I just let it work like it has for years (13+). The interface is clear and uncluttered, I like the grey black and orange city night theme. The program is light weight and fast and honestly never crashes on me.......If I don't fancy a track I can hit the forward button on the taskbar, if the player is in focus the Number lock 6 button. So manly little things it is hard to figure them out without using it.

MediaMonkey can do all that and more. It's skinable so one can change the skin to what one wants. This is how I have it set up:
Just about everything can be customized if one doesn't like the defaults. I'm not using half of the columns available.

OKAY Lady F you have convinced me to download and try it out. The registration fee is steep for an audio player at $49 but if it is that good I'll pay it. Of course I suspect once Winamp goes off-line there will be no more contacting the Gracenote server for music identification. If ripping you can use Exact Audio Copy etc. The skin looks good, is that a default one or did you find it somewhere?

 

[Fantail]

Haven't used winamp since my last XP machine.

 

[jimbo45]

Play by folder, just navigate to a folder and let Winamp play the whole lot in order or random order. Setting an alloction in the options to load the whole file into ram (makes sense with 16Gb or more)I don't do playlists and as an old cantankerous bar stewert depending on the day I just let it work like it has for years (13+). The interface is clear and uncluttered, I like the grey black and orange city night theme. The program is light weight and fast and honestly never crashes on me.......If I don't fancy a track I can hit the forward button on the taskbar, if the player is in focus the Number lock 6 button. So manly little things it is hard to figure them out without using it.

MediaMonkey can do all that and more. It's skinable so one can change the skin to what one wants. This is how I have it set up:
Just about everything can be customized if one doesn't like the defaults. I'm not using half of the columns available.

OKAY Lady F you have convinced me to download and try it out. The registration fee is steep for an audio player at $49 but if it is that good I'll pay it. Of course I suspect once Winamp goes off-line there will be no more contacting the Gracenote server for music identification. If ripping you can use Exact Audio Copy etc. The skin looks good, is that a default one or did you find it somewhere?

Hi there

Regarding Gracenote access.

That's actually not an issue since the Gracenote connection is a mere API (Application program Interface)- any application just needs the correct set of commands to retrieve the relevant data -for example when you split say a single APE or FLAC CUE file back into the original track layout with CUE TOOLS the CUE TOOLS program retrieves the initial CD track data (tags) from GRACENOTE (assuming the original rip had something like the CD identifier in it).

Another example of an API is downloading Stock market data from YAHOO finance (US site) for example

Using the Yahoo Finance API for CSV | Jarloo (This is nothing to do with WINAMP - merely to show that ANY application can use API's where available and Gracenote has a standard API set for retrieving information).

So don't be worried that Gracenote access will not be available when Winamp finally closes down -- you've got a perpetual licence in any case.

(I sometimes still use an old Minidisc program that creates minidiscs from CD tracks - even though minidiscs haven't been supported for YEARS and I have to run the program on an XP (actually a w2003 server but similar to XP) virtual machine where the application is called Simple Burner and it still retrieves track info from Gracenote).

Here's the application screenshot from the VM

Cheers

Jimbo

 

[Indianatone]

Good to know Jimbo, well done on that info. I'd rep you for that but can't on here

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Play by folder, just navigate to a folder and let Winamp play the whole lot in order or random order. Setting an alloction in the options to load the whole file into ram (makes sense with 16Gb or more)I don't do playlists and as an old cantankerous bar stewert depending on the day I just let it work like it has for years (13+). The interface is clear and uncluttered, I like the grey black and orange city night theme. The program is light weight and fast and honestly never crashes on me.......If I don't fancy a track I can hit the forward button on the taskbar, if the player is in focus the Number lock 6 button. So manly little things it is hard to figure them out without using it.

MediaMonkey can do all that and more. It's skinable so one can change the skin to what one wants. This is how I have it set up:
Just about everything can be customized if one doesn't like the defaults. I'm not using half of the columns available.

OKAY Lady F you have convinced me to download and try it out. The registration fee is steep for an audio player at $49 but if it is that good I'll pay it. Of course I suspect once Winamp goes off-line there will be no more contacting the Gracenote server for music identification. If ripping you can use Exact Audio Copy etc. The skin looks good, is that a default one or did you find it somewhere?

MediaMonkey has a good free version. One thing MediaMonkey doesn't do is use Gracenote. It uses the somewhat inferior Freedb. The free version has a fairly good ripping function; the paid version is better.

I used a CD ripping program before moving to Win 7 that used Gracenote (the program was abandonware and wouldn't run on Win 7). While Gracenote was better than FreeDB, it was still frequently full of errors. I normally had to edit tags from Gracenote; Freedb just requires a bit more editing. Often, neither would have tags for my CD tracks because many of my CDs are from independent entertainers (home burned disks are not uncommon).

 

[Indianatone]

[/QUOTE]
MediaMonkey has a good free version. One thing MediaMonkey doesn't do is use Gracenote. It uses the inferior Freedb. The free version has a fairly good ripping function; the paid version is better.[/QUOTE]

Exact audio copy uses that service too as does MP3Tag so Winamp always found the correct names and details when the others came back empty. We all know how wonderful it is to type a CD full of tracks in although I have done that and submitted it back too. I'll give it a good shot and try it out.